Help Us Choose An Album Cover

Work is kicking my butt. Where did my carefree summer of mini books and vacations go?? Come back summer of ice cream and rainbows! Boo to spreadsheets and emails! It's seriously cramping all of my fun stuff, including the big project I was supposed to finish: our wedding album. After some frustrating use of Adorama (more on that when I get the actual book) I went back to Blurb. I am SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE. I'm really happy with how it's turned out so far. 

But, it's taken a long time. One of the things the boy and I cannot agree on is the cover. We argued about it without a resolution, and since then I have just left the file untouched. Since I'm going back to grad school in about three weeks (eeek!) it's time I get this project done. Let's pick a cover, please help me. 

I'm not going to tell you which one of us likes what because I know you all love me more and will choose the one I like (ha!) So here are four choices--please excuse the terrible cloning of our names. 

Which one would you choose, to have and to hold, on one's coffee table, from this day forward? Or until we get filthy rich and invest in a cloth-bound book with archival paper?

#1

#2

 

#3

 #4

Thoughts? 1, 2, 3, or 4?

Our Collaborative Wedding Guest Book

I FINALLY got around to making our wedding guest book! Well, let me clarify, more like finally got around to compiling and creating covers for my wedding guest book. Our guests luckily created all of the content, and I had the pleasure of putting it altogether and getting weepy over their messages and photos! 

{The guest book, like most things in our wedding, prompted a lot of debate and discussion. You can read all about the other options we considered here.}

I'm really happy about how it turned out. Here it is, the completed book, each page made by a guest at our wedding: 

I designed the cover to mirror our invitations. You can see our invitations here. 

And here are some of the pages designed by our guests: 

Our collaborative mini book was very easy to organize. You can make one too!

I planned to have two types of paper to the wedding, pink scalloped note cards and plain white note cards left over from when I was studying for the GRE. (Glad those came in handy later in life!) The cards are about the same size at 4 x 6. Prior to the wedding, I punched three holes in one notecard that I used as my template. And then I gave the boy the hole puncher and had him punch holes in the notecards. :) 

Next, I gathered stickers, special scissors, pens, colored pencils, and anything else I thought people would like to decorate their page.

We used the Polaroid camera so people could add photos to their pages (bring lots of film!), and because Polaroid cameras are retro fun. I bought photo corners so they didn't have to tape the polaroids and so I could take them off the page if needed. 

Our kind cousin took people's photos, and then put all the completed cards in a box. 

You can see the whole set-up here:

 

 [Set-up photos from Jessamyn Harris and Sheri Tennison Berg for Jessamyn Harris Photography]

Finally, to put the whole book together, I used 2" binder rings and a Crop-A-Dile to punch holes through the thicker cardboard I used for the cover.  This mini book was inspired from one of my favorite blogs for inspiration, enJOY it.

If you had a wedding, what was your "guest book"?

My Mom's Ring Pillow

 

[Treat and trinket tray, Heather Bailey]

I saw this "treat and trinket tray"  on Heather Bailey's website, made with the same fabric we used for the ring pillow, and realized, I never showed off my Mom's craft skills! My Mom made our ring pillow, and it came out so cute. There is a wide white ribbon in the middle, and then thin ribbons sewed in the middle to tie the rings on. We used the Hop Dot Cherry fabric from Heather Bailey.

  

 [Photos by Jessamyn Harris and Sheri Tennison Berg for Jessamyn Harris Photography]

You can see more of my Mom's craftiness on my post about my prom dress. 
For more Heather Bailey project inspiration, visit the group flickr page.

Hope everyone has a lovely Friday and weekend!

Mo+Boy Tie the Knot: Thank You Readers

[Our sweetheart table, the wreaths we made still in place]

[The tent glowing after the sun went down]

Well Pink Argyle readers, like all good things, my wedding recaps are coming to an end. Tragically, for the most part, you will now have to read *dun dun dun* about my very boring everyday life. It involves a cat and a lot of sitting at a computer.

I'm honestly a little sad. So many of you have loyally followed along, lent advice and support along the way, and kept me sane in my craziest of moments. No one else quite understands how it is conceivably possible to have a freak-out about a cake topper or have your budget busted because your dress doesn't fit. For that, I'm so grateful you understand. It's been totally fun. And even more fun when I could share it with you all. Thank you.

Planning a wedding? Have fun with it, and try not to stress so much about keeping up with the Joneses (or the Changs.) In the end, you'll still be married and your friends and family will still love you, with or without ice sculptures or swans waddling around the tulip border.

I leave you with some photos I took the day after the wedding. Normal, everyday Mo posts to commence shortly!

xoxo
Mo

[I put my beautiful bouquet in water. I loved that huge peony so much, and the next day it really blossomed open.]

[One detail I never shared--this is the notebook I bought for our officiant to hold. Our vows and the transcript for the ceremony are written inside, and I think I might use it as a scrap book for the polaroids and notes people wrote at the wedding. I glued the ribbon to front and back to have it match our theme.]

[Our 65 leftover cupcakes. Holy cupcake, Batman!]

[Two top photos, by Jessamyn Harris and Sheri Tennison Berg for Jessamyn Harris Photography]

Mo+Boy Tie the Knot: Cutting the (Cup)cake

[Om nom nom nom nom]

[To see the cupcakes in their beauty shots, click here.]

I forgot about the cupcakes. Me, of all people, forgot about eating the cupcakes. At one point the coordinator told me we should probably find a good place to stop and do the cake cutting, and then I looked at her in my daze of being the bride and said "Oh yeah...we have cupcakes to eat!" The cupcakes that I fretted about here and here. We could actually eat them now.

Everyone crowded around us at front, and Jessamyn told me later that she had never seen a crowd quite so excited about the cake cutting. I don't know if it's because they were all starving for cupcakes or because they knew how excited I was about the cupcakes, but either way, there was a lot of baked goods love under the tent.

[I just might be singing to the cupcake. We had Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat's Lucky in the background.]

[Ok, so we technically didn't cut anything, which would have been the more demure thing to do. But this worked too! The boy's cupcake choice was a black and white, mine was red velvet.]

[Huzzah!! Cupcaaaaaakkkkesss! I love this photo.]

[Smooches!]

[The crowd devoured what was on the table, luckily there were more in the boxes!]

[A lone chocolate peanut butter cupcake]

Having a cupcake wedding in the San Diego area?

I recommend...

Influx in Golden Hill and Little Italy (super moist, frosting is great, unfortunately I found this place too late! Even if you're not getting cupcakes, you should check out the cafe for lunch and a cup of coffee.)

Babycakes in Hillcrest (the cupcakes were HUGE and tasty, even better was the great service we received. We abandoned the idea once my godmother agreed to bring Sprinkles from Newport Beach.)

Sprinkles in La Jolla (opening this month in the Whole Foods shopping center next to UCSD!)

And if you have anyone willing to bring baked goods from the OC...

Susiecakes

[Photos by Jessamyn Harris and Sheri Tennison Berg for Jessamyn Harris Photography]

Mo+Boy Tie the Knot: I Gotta Feeling...

...that that song is totally overplayed. And that I owe you another wedding recap!

[for the full experience, click play]

I was nervous about the dancing part of the wedding because I was afraid people would not dance. If you've been to a Chinese wedding, you know exactly what I mean. People typically eat, take pictures, and then leave. But I was happy that people actually danced, even though there were some lulls and definite song duds due to yours truly (c'mon people, doesn't anyone else like to dance to Stray Cat Strut??)

My do not play list was long, and had, you guessed it, Black Eyed Peas. The DJ even commented, hmm that's gonna be tough, they are reeaallly popular right now.

They made the do not play list because I make a lot of pop music associations with things that have happened in my life. I had a crappy boyfriend who loved the Black Eyed Peas. Therefore,

Crappy boyfriend = Black Eyed Peas

I had a horrible day at work where I felt like biting off a lot of heads, and the topic of discussion that day was whether or not to play Let's Get It Started as the opening song at a work event. Therefore,

Bad day at work = Black Eyed Peas

Put the two together. Crappy boyfriend + Bay day at work = BLACK EYED PEAS

Well, the DJ ended up playing I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas. But it wasn't the DJ's fault.

Troublemaker: Hey I just asked the DJ to play I Gotta Feeling and he said that I had to get permission from you.

Boy: Yeah! I wanted to play that song and she said no. [bumps me] Other people like that song too.

Me: Whaaaaat. That's on my do not play list though.

Troublemaker: Uh, we just heard Ke$ha. I'm a little confused about your standards here.

Me: You request that song, you better dance like you've never danced before.

And so the DJ played it. And as if everyone else were in on the joke, everyone started dancing. Because apparently not everyone equates Black Eyed Peas with Crappy boyfriend and Bad day at work. It was, admittedly, a very fun end to the evening. I no longer loathe the song because it will forever have the association of our wedding.

I Gotta Feeling = Fun time at the wedding

Got a Crappy boyfriend + Bad day at work song? Share it with me!

[Photo by Jessamyn Harris and Sheri Tennison Berg for Jessamyn Harris Photography]

Mo+Boy Tie the Knot: The First Dance

We did not choreograph anything. We definitely did a lot of swaying. We managed one turn, which I think is pretty good considering we have two left feet.

And there were no maracas and no Celine Dion. [Thank goodness]

Since we have no song to call our own, it was actually a pretty un-romantic process of listening to a bunch of songs that we thought we could easily sway to. The boy really likes Frank Sinatra, so my first thought was to go with something more classic. Also, I was told "nothing weird" so that already ruled out a bunch of songs.

The Very Thought of You played as our family walked down the aisle, so I thought it would be nice to dance to it as well.

La Vie en Rose was also considered, as was I Could Have Danced All Night because once upon a time in 2003 I put it on a mixed CD for him and he still listens to it. In the end, we danced to I Wished For You by Jasmine Ash, which if you watch Ugly Betty [SPOILER!] is the song played when Bobby proposes to Hilda. It got the seal of approval from the boy, the sister, and the friend, because it sounded very sweet, and for its excellent swaying possibilities.

[One of my favorites, this is what Tyra would call 'smiling with your eyes']

I'm not even sure he remembers what song we danced to, but I saw a few tears well up in his eyes while we did the middle school shuffle. I'm pretty sure he's glad we didn't end up playing air maracas.

Do you have a song? What did you dance to at your wedding?

[Photos by Jessamyn Harris and Sheri Tennison Berg forJessamyn Harris Photography]

Mo+Boy Tie the Knot: Toasts and Thank Yous

The tent at night? Absolutely gorgeous. Perfect backdrop for our toasts to start off the party.

[My sister and cousin introduce us and the family members, in English and Cantonese!]

It was really important to me that people close to us did the introductions. I thought it would be much more personal, more familial, and I'm thankful that my sister and cousin did such a great job!

I originally didn't want to be introduced. At all. But it seemed like it would lend some energy, so I decided it wasn't too bad after all. And it wasn't! Completely painless and not at all cheesy like I imagined.

(If you'd like to reenact it, click play on the YouTube video while reading.)

[I loved our sweetheart table. We weren't sitting there very much, but I still loved it.]

We asked our close friends to do the toasts for us. My adorable girl pals you've seen in previous posts took the mic and wished us well. While looking at photos after the wedding, I realized that they were the few friends there who knew me before I met the boy, and it was very special to have them toast us.

Next up was the boy's buddies from high school, who get props because they gave me credit for moving to San Diego and remembered that he wrote me a poem for our one month anniversary. I didn't even remember he wrote that poem.

...I should really fish it out from my shoe boxes!

[The boy looks slightly traumatized and happy at the same time in this photo. I love it.]

[Huzzah!]

Finally, it was our turn to say thank you to our guests. Although our DJ did a great job introducing our friends and playing music everyone liked, there was one part we forgot to go over: how to pronounce my name. Whoops. My whole life my name has been mispronounced (you've probably guessed it isn't 'Mo' in reality) and it would have been nice to have it pronounced correctly at my wedding. Not the end of the world, just slightly annoying. After the one incident, the boy insisted on telling him how to say it correctly in case he had to introduce us again, which he did, for the first dance. Good save boy.

So, if you have a notoriously hard to pronounce name, make sure your DJ knows how to say it!

I'm really glad we did a thank you speech, and if you don't totally puke from public speaking, I recommend doing so. We took turns thanking people close to us, and it was a nice way to end the toasts, and for me, have some closure to the wedding planning.

Surprisingly I could have talked longer (I despise public speaking and blush at the drop of a pin,) but we were running slightly behind schedule and I wanted to get dancing. So I wrapped things up, just as our first dance song started playing.

Thanks so much for coming, we hope you have a wonderful night.

[Photos by Jessamyn Harris and Sheri Tennison Berg for Jessamyn Harris Photography]

Mo+Boy Tie the Knot: Photo Station Advice

[We have really cute friends.]

While I'm on the topic of regrets, I regret not publicizing the photo station enough. There was a sign, and a large fabric backdrop that was visible, but guests later told me that they thought the area was reserved for only close friends and family. Whoops, my bad. (See, that bull horn would have come in handy here too!)

In any case, I love the photos that we did get from the few guests that found the photo station.

They give me the warm fuzzies.

[I actually don't know what their message says. You would think that I would have asked one of them by now, but then what would be the fun in that? Can you read it?]

[It was hard to pick a favorite shot from these two. I'm impressed they stayed in the frame while jumping. And I couldn't agree more, tennis pretty much sucks with a bad partner!]

[Awwwww. This huggable man is also a talented illustrator. Need a project? Find him here!]

[No freakin' way, we wish we were as cute as you two!]

[I'm glad we agree, owls DO rock.]

[My cousin is going to have a super cute wedding too!]

[My old roomies! Apartment 118 was so much fun, I'm still trying to convince the boy to put purple in our bathroom and add some stuffed animals to the bed.]

[One of my favorites.]

[Thanks for reading!]

If I had to give advice to someone having a photo station/booth...

1. Make an announcement and have your friends/bridal party remind people that there is a photo station where they can take as many photos as they want.

2. Looking for color in your backdrop? Choose one with a large, vibrant pattern. Ours had polka dots, but they aren't very visible and I would have liked something more bold that would have popped.

Did you have a photo station? Any tips on how to spread the word or make it a hit?

Fabric from Heather Bailey, photo station set up by Jessamyn Harris Photography